Situated alongside the Parkway West (US 22/30) across from the Campbells Run Road Exit, the facility will serve as a showcase for the building trades. In addition to an exposed roof structure with heavy timber wood trusses, the Carpenters’ Training Center will include “transparent” walls to show students duct shafts, plumbing and electrical configurations as well as drop panels to expose construction joints and rebar.

“The facility itself will teach our apprentices how their work relates to the construction provided by other building trade workers,” said Carpenters’ Training Director Ray Vogel. “It will enable us to do so much more than we are able to do at our current facility on Neville Island. I know our instructors and apprentices are very excited about the opportunities and benefits that will come with the new center.”

To construct the facility, approximately 250,000 cubic yards of dirt were moved and some 4,000 cubic yards of concrete were poured. The facility also includes 1,000 tons of steel.

“The building location on the high side of the Parkway West presented challenges for cost effective site development,” said Dean Mosites of Mosites Construction Company. “Huge quantities of soil and rock were excavated from the steep slope to generate enough flat area for the building’s 50,000 square foot footprint. Site development was further complicated because both deep and surface coal mining had taken place just five feet below the chosen elevation for the building pad. We stabilized building slab-on-grade through undercutting and structural fill procedures while foundations were secured using a combination of footers and caissons to bedrock.”

To overcome these and other challenges, the Mosites team worked closely with Astorino architects to design and construct a building that will be extremely functional, attractive and a great asset to the region.

The same is true of the Steamfitters Technology Center which is undergoing Phase I of a major three phase expansion. Located at its current site since 1989, the facility could no longer accommodate all of the training demands necessary for the Steamfitters’ two apprenticeship programs (Mechanical Equipment Service Program and Building Trades Apprentice Program) as well as other training that is available to journeymen on an ongoing basis.

“We’ve been crawling on top of each other for several years now,” said Training Director Dale Glavin. “On any given year we will train over 400 apprentices and journeymen at this site. That’s probably twice as many as the facility was intended to originally accommodate.”

Among other features, the new Technology Center will house a new HVACR lab, three new classrooms and seven more welding booths (bringing the total number of booths to 31).

Phase one work will also include all new mechanical systems and new electrical systems to increase power. The two story structure

New classrooms, an HVACR Lab and additional welding booths will comprise approximately 8,000 square feet of additional space at the Steamfitters Local Union #449 Technology Center in Pittsburgh.

On site by 6:30 a.m. on a warm July Wednesday, the crew had the 40 by 70 foot frame structure nearly completed by the end of the day and Bob Briggs almost speechless.

will also house an elevator for the first time. All together, the building under Phase I will grow from 25,000 square feet to approximately 33,000 square feet.

In Spring 2010, Phase II will get underway. That work will include demolishing the rear of the facility and rebuilding two new floors, adding another 7,000 to 10,000 square feet. Phase III work will encompass expansion of the administrative areas of the Center, providing room for a reference library and more preparation space for the facility’s 32 part-time instructors.

“Even though we are very proud of our current training programs, this facility has limitations as to how much hands on training we can provide,” Dale explained. “That will no longer be the case when our renovations are complete. This will largely be a new facility with unlimited opportunities for training the world’s best steamfitters.”

General contractor for Phase I work, which is estimated to cost approximately $1.2 million, is dck Worldwide of Large, Pennsylvania.

New Donaldson Torit exhaust systems are being installed to remove odors from the seven additional welding booths at the Steamfitters Local Union #449 Technology Center.